1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for receiving a registration for a purchased-item from a customer and performing a weight determination for the purchased-item.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in supermarkets and the like, a self-scanning system has been introduced for reducing labor costs required for salesclerks. With the self-scanning system, customers themselves register purchased-items and perform a payment for the purchase (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-302156). When a purchased-item is attached with a barcode, such a self-scanning system causes a customer to read a barcode of the purchased-item with a scanner and receives registration for the purchased-item from the customer. Then, every time such a purchased-item is put in a register-bag, the self-scanning system performs weight determination by measuring a weight of the purchased-item with a measuring device provided under the register-bag (a scale under register-bag).
On the other hand, when a purchased-item is not attached with a barcode (e.g., daily dishes, sweets, or bread), the self-scanning system displays a list of items not attached with barcodes on a touch panel and receives registration for the purchased-item by causing the customer to designate the purchased-item and input a quantity of purchase on the touch panel. Then, the self-scanning system performs weight determination by measuring a weight of the purchased-item placed on a measuring device provided on a scanner (a scale on scanner) with the scale on scanner.
In the conventional technology described above, when a customer attempts to purchase plural kinds of items not attached with barcodes putting the items in one container, the self-scanning system cannot execute registration and weight determination for the purchased-items appropriately.
In the conventional technology, when the plural kinds of purchased-items not attached with barcodes are stored in one container, weight determination for all the items in the container is performed at a point when one kind of purchased-items is designated in a list displayed on the touch panel and a quantity of purchase is input. Thus, since the items, which are not designated, are also measured together with the designated item, a result of the weight determination turns out to be an error. Consequently, it is impossible to execute registration and weight determination for the purchased-items appropriately.
When such an error is output, although the self-scanning system is used, a salesclerk has to take the trouble to perform a mismatch processing (processing for giving an operation instruction to skip weight determination and, then, registering respective purchased-items in a container again without performing weight determination). As a result, reduction in labor cost for salesclerks is not realized. Moreover, when the mismatch processing is performed by a salesclerk, a customer may notice the operation instruction to skip weight determination. Thus, it is likely that the customer uses such an operation instruction for wrong purposes to perform illegal payment processing.
On the other hand, in order to avoid such problems, as a solution, it is conceivable to set a rule that only one kind of items can be stored in one container and cause customers and counter salespersons to comply with the rule thoroughly. However, this solution imposes not only large burdens on the customers and counter salespersons but also large burdens on shops in terms of man-hour and container cost. Therefore, it cannot be said that the solution is realistic.